


across from me

by clawsnbeak



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Has No Chill, Alternate Universe - Kindergarten & Pre-school, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/F, Fluff, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish Fluff, They don't get together, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but like it's a possibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 07:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20354575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clawsnbeak/pseuds/clawsnbeak
Summary: Allison Parrish and Rowan Lynch are both kindergarten teachers with classrooms who face each other from across the hallway.Fluff ensues.





	across from me

**Author's Note:**

> Will write a sequel if anyone is interested! Let me know <3

Allison Parrish never wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. She had worked her way up from nothing and, because of that, felt like she had that much more to prove. So, she went to Harvard, got her bachelor, then her master, worked as a lawyer in a big firm, and realised she wasn’t happy. It had taken her a long time to figure out what it was that she wanted to do instead. It had taken her even longer to finally gain the courage to quit her job and go back to college.

  
She had always liked children. She wanted to be the person she needed at that age, help the little kids to find their way in a safe environment. One she never had. Though, there was a part of her that made her feel slightly uncomfortable around them when she did her internship the first year back at college. Her past blended into her present more than it had in years as she looked down at the innocent faces of the little children she was in charge of once a week. She had looked like that once, innocent and unassuming, and her father had still made her life a living hell. More than once she wondered if she should continue with her studies, fearing she might become what she so despised in her father. Nevertheless, she continued and it paid off. 

Parker Elementary School hired her immediately after her internship there was over. And now, standing in front of the classroom, watching as her tiny students enthusiastically colour the Mickey Mouse colouring page she had printed out mere hours ago, it felt nothing but right. She still had to remind herself every day that she wasn’t Robert Parrish and though she was related to him, she wasn’t his actions either. And it took time, like all healing processes do, but her loving students made it all worth it.

“Miss Parrish!” Thomas shouted while running towards her, the colouring page clutched tightly in his little hand. “Look!”

Allison squatted down, her half-long dress falling over her lower legs as she did. Thomas was now directly in her line of sight, handing her the page immediately with a proud grin, one of his teeth missing. 

“You did an amazing job, Thomas,” Allison praised, pulling the kid to her side. “I like this in particular.” Allison pointed to the swirl of colours Thomas had drawn right over Mickey Mouse’s face. “It’s a great use of blue.”

“Thank you, Miss Parrish,” Thomas said, suddenly shy. He didn’t meet his teacher’s eyes, looking at his shoes instead.

Allison watched him fondly and softly asked, “Maybe you’ll become a great artist someday. Would you want that?”

Thomas nodded frantically, his shyness forgotten. “I also want to be an astronaut and a cook and a doctor like my mommy and a dad.”

Allison laughed cheerily, ruffling the small kid’s hair softly. “You can be anything you want to be, don’t forget that.”

“I won’t!” Thomas promised, a serious expression on his face.

“Good,” Allison told him. She handed Thomas a back-up colouring page. “Go practise your art a bit more. We’ll have a break in 10 minutes.”

Thomas took the page carefully so it didn’t crinkle and went back to his friends, immediately taking over the blue coloured pencils.

The classroom was filled with happy children’s voice, all laughing or excitedly showing their friends what they have created. Allison relished in it. There was nothing that cheered her up more than seeing the children have fun, though sometimes it stung with an emptiness she knew couldn’t be filled. Instead of thinking about her past for too long and getting stuck in it, she walked past every student, praising them and helping them alike. 

That was until she heard a loud scream coming from the hallway. She quickly told her students to stay seated as she went to go check out what was going on. A million things shot through her head, like it always did when she heard a child screaming or crying. What happened? Are they hurt? Is it medical? Bullies? As a teacher you must be prepared for everything, which is why she got her first-aid certificate pretty early on, but it still managed to invoke fear inside of her, telling her there was a possibility she couldn’t help.

When she entered the hallway, though, she realised the scream was not one of fear or pain, it was one of joy. Allison sagged against the wall outside of her classroom in relief, watching amusedly as no other than Rowan Lynch was parading a child on her shoulders.

The little girl had her arms wrapped around Rowan’s neck, her head on top of Rowan’s curls. Rowan was running around with her, holding on tightly to her legs so she wouldn’t fall. She was making funny sounds which only made the kid laugh harder.

“You’re silly,” the child laughed, poking Rowan in the head. Rowan didn’t look bothered one bit, she confirmed it instead by running around harder.

When Allison was introduced to Rowan Lynch, she immediately wondered why the school had hired her. The woman was all sharp angles and even sharper smirks which were pointed at her more often than not. Allison had only seen Rowan in the hallway, since their classrooms were right across from each other, but making conversation wasn’t fair high up on her to do list and Rowan never tried to talk to her either.

That was until Allison actually got to see how Rowan was with her students. Nothing was too much for her to handle and the kids absolutely adored her. As harsh as she looked on the outside, as gentle as she was within. That point proves itself again when Rowan didn’t even stop the girl on her shoulders from playing with her curls.

“It’s time for a break, Parrish,” Rowan said, never once bothering with formalities. Allison rolled her eyes but smiled despite herself. She looked back to see how her own kids were doing but they were concentrating too much on colouring within the lines to notice. Rowan’s kids were pouring out of the classroom already and it would be mere seconds before her own students would notice. 

Allison ignored Rowan’s intense eyes on her and focussed instead on the girl still sitting on Rowan’s shoulders. “What is your name, sweetheart?”

She didn’t ignore the reddening of Rowan’s cheeks as she let her old Henrietta accent slip through at the endearment.

“Cristina,” the girl replied, waving one little hand at Allison before tangling her hands in her hair again. Allison couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. Rowan didn’t seem as dangerous with a cute kid clutching onto her.

“Hi Cristina!” Allison said, waving back. “Are you having fun with Miss Lynch.”  
  
“Always, huh?” Rowan looked up to meet Cristina’s eyes with a fake firm expression. Cristina giggled to herself but nodded, distracted again by Rowan’s curls. She started singing to herself, her voice sweet and innocent. Rowan and Allison both melted a little.

Rowan smiled fondly. “She is talented.”

“She is,” Allison confirmed before turning back to her own kids. “I’ll see you outside?”

“As always,” Rowan said before walking off, little Cristina still singing and now moving her body along to the melody of her own voice.

Allison took her place next to Rowan on the bench they always sat on during break time. Her kids practically ran out of the door as she announced it was time for them to play outside. And now she was seated next to Rowan on “their” bench right in front of the playground so they had an eye on everybody. Their hallway had different timed breaks than the other hallways in the school filled with different grade years. They arranged it so that the little kids didn’t have to be scared of the bigger kids, meaning Rowan and Allison only had to deal with each other and two other teachers neither of them really cared about too much. 

Though, since Rowan suddenly appeared into her life with a leather jacket and a devilish grin somewhere last year, they had gotten closer. Allison would almost call them friends, though with Rowan, you never really knew what went through her head. That women was build up from walls and secrets she wasn’t intending on sharing.

They spend their breaks in comfortable silence, sometimes gossiping about annoying parents or difficult teachers, sometimes arguing about whatever it was they couldn’t agree on, sometimes laughing and joking as if they were old friends.

Allison found herself looking forwards to the breaks more often these days, something she had never done before Rowan was hired.

“Wanna go over some lesson plans today? I was planning on doing some body part sh-“

Allison shot her a quick stern glance and Rowan quickly corrected herself.

“-stuff. I mean stuff.”

Allison nodded in approval which earned her a sheepish laugh. Rowan, as amazing as she was with the children, still needed a swearing filter every now and then. Allison happily provided her with one.

“Sure,” she said. She was looking forward to their meet up already, which stunned her a little. Sure, the breaks were nice to spend together and yes she looked forward to those, mainly because it was sometimes nice to talk to adults instead of little kids, but now after school meetings were fun to her as well? Well, specifically those with Rowan. After school meetings, the official ones, were mind-numbing. But those with Rowan were more casual, more fun in general. It made her feel less dead than the official ones made her feel, though now she was starting to question why specifically?

Allison never could deny Rowan was a very attractive woman. Black curls just reaching her shoulders, pale skin which put her frequent blushing on display, sharp angles but soft eyes whenever she interacted with her students. She always wore tight fitting shirts, designer, of course, that made Allison feel warm all over, something she always tried to ignore. With the leather jacket, ear piercings, and scar striking through one of her eyebrows she certainly didn’t look like a kindergarten teacher but she was one of the best in the school and Allison greatly admired her for that.

The end of the day couldn’t come quick enough, despite Allison adoring every single one of her kids. She ended the day with making them all tell something they liked and disliked about today, her heart melting when most of the kids mentioned that they liked her the most of the day. She often questioned what she did to deserve these kids but her mind always came up empty. She hugged them all at the door, helping them get into their jackets and waiting for their parents to arrive.

Across the hall, Rowan was giving every kid a fist bump. Their little fists against her bigger hand looked almost comical but Allison felt a surge of warmth well up in her chest at the sight. Such a rough and mean looking person being gentle with little children tore Allison’s heart apart. It was in moments like these that she fully realised Rowan Lynch was a very complicated person and much more than what Allison initially labeled her as.

She caught herself staring a little too long and turned back to smile at her kids who were too busy with each other to notice. Once the last kid had been picked up, Allison returned to her classroom, taking the big binder she kept out of the closet next to her desk. 

Allison kept the binder in case she ever needed a backup lesson plan and used to quite frequently to come up with new ideas. If you don’t stimulate children enough, they will get bored and wreak havoc, which is something to be avoided at all costs.

“Oh no,” came from the door opening where Rowan was leaning against the doorpost. “The binder.”

“Shut up,” Allison said but there was no real malice in it. Rowan smirked, making her stomach drop a little. She kicked herself off from the doorpost and made her way over to her desk, sitting on top of it. Allison almost kicked her off but she was in a good mood today so she let it slide this time.

“Let’s start then.”

Every teacher will tell you that lesson plans are the worst and even Allison with her colour-coded binder, hates making them more than anything. But every teacher will also tell you that they are really helpful, especially when you deal with children who get bored easily. So, they plowed through, listing the ideas on next week’s topic: the body. They had to figure out a way of teaching them the different body parts without making it too boring. They eventually decided on a game but it needed some refining so they stayed longer than either of them had planned.

It often went like this. Teachers have more workload than many people realise and it showed when the lights automatically turned off to indicate that the school was officially closing. Luckily, they had the keys to the main entrance after being locked in too often.

Halfway through their planning Rowan huffed and put her hair in a bun, securing it with a pencil. Locks of curls were falling in front of her eyes, making her blue eyes even more striking. Allison watched in amazement as she did. Even the cliche teacher hairdo didn’t make her look any less threatening.

_Fascinating._

“It’s fucking hot in here,” she said, jumping down from the desk, hair still in place. She walked towards a window to open it, her back towards Allison who immediately froze. 

_Is that a tattoo?_

Allison couldn’t make out what it was exactly but black ink was poking out of her black t-shirt, curling around the back of her neck and traveling down. 

“Didn’t know you had one of those.”

Allison meant to stay quiet but it came tumbling out, the shock to great to think straight about the consequences of poking into Rowan’s life. Rowan merely turned around and grinned at her.

“You like it?” she asked, her voice lowering just a little. Allison felt her heart beat in her throat, watching as the ink followed the movements of her neck. She was enthralled and nearly asked if she could see the rest of her tattoo but quickly closed her mouth.

Rowan’s eyes glinted as if she had guessed what Allison was thinking. Allison felt her cheeks burn and quickly changed the subject back to the lesson plans. They didn’t speak about it again but she could feel Rowan’s eyes burning through her.

And if Allison was thinking about the tattoo late that night, imagining what the ink must look like on the pale expanse of her back, nobody would know but her.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also on [tumblr](clawsnbeak.tumblr.com)


End file.
